The Forever War (Hardcover) by Dexter Filkins - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

rating	frequency	%
5		56%
4		34%
3		7%
2		0%
1		0%

topics	posts	views	last activity
Books on the Nigh...: What are you currently reading?	389	502	2 days ago, 02:22PM
NEW Winston-Salem...: Nonfiction Ideas	4	11	9 days ago, 06:16AM
Chicks On Lit: Middle East book discussions multiple spoilers possible	75	180	18 days ago, 09:40AM
True North: * True North Book Club	52	92	05/29/2009 04:04PM
Terminalcoffee: Wars, Endless Wars - Bob Herbert Opinion - Charlie Wilson's War	7	19	03/03/2009 08:19AM

01/29/09

brian rated it:

recommends it for: donald; nobody with a weak stomach

i was initially irritated by filkins refusal to widen focus and take in the broader picture, y’know, the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind the iraq war -- i wanted a top-down history starting with the geo-political chessboard and ending with boots on the ground. but i was quick to realize i had put my own demands, the demands of a history book, on what is something entirely different. filkins realizes that, generally speaking, the participants in wars (even in the age of internet, tivo, and cell ...more i was initially irritated by filkins refusal to widen focus and take in the broader picture, y’know, the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind the iraq war -- i wanted a top-down history starting with the geo-political chessboard and ending with boots on the ground. but i was quick to realize i had put my own demands, the demands of a history book, on what is something entirely different. filkins realizes that, generally speaking, the participants in wars (even in the age of internet, tivo, and cell phones) do not have access or privilege to knowledge of the events they take part in. this is the iraq war he presents.

even more impressive than filkins’s balls (so big you could attach ‘em to a crane and use ‘em to knock over the chrysler building) is the intellectual confidence to admit he just doesn’t know what the fuck is going on. while nearly every pundit/reporter/activist/partisan gobbles down loads of friedman/huntington/lewis/etc and claims to understand the ‘arab mind’, the 'arab street', and all there is to know about iraq, the nature of freedom, and what the founding fathers would have done, filkins hangs in the ‘known unknown’ camp: he waits and watches.

it’s tough, as I write this in 2009, for those who supported the war to defend their position. but I think it might even be tougher (or should be) for those who were 100% against it to understand that there was a noble side to this thing. not necessarily a noble side to the bush administration’s motives, but a noble byproduct in the removal of saddam hussein. y'know, the guy who gassed tens of thousands of innocent kurds, threw tens of thousands of his own people into torture chambers and rape rooms, waged one of the bloodiest and most pointess wars of the last century (with absolutely no result other than millions of corpses), invaded kuwait, encouraged suicide bombings by offering cash rewards to the families, shot at planes in the no-fly zone, and was set to leave his demented creation to sons who were zealous practicitioners of rape torture and murder.

one aspect of president dipshit’s legacy is that, once again, american intervention has been totally and thoroughly discredited. and for the most part this is a good thing. but, still, american intervention, preferably with NATO or some other alliance, could have cut short the rwandan genocide. after taking its thumb out of its ass, when america finally committed, it took down milošević and ended that genocide. and it sickens me that congress didn’t even bother to seriously debate sudan. but, these are not easy questions, and after reading filkins’s book it feels even more maniacal to subject anyone to the shit he describes. but the triumph of the book – after the insider's view of combat (perhaps the most harrowing i've ever read) and terrific character studies of marines, insurgents, extremists, iraqi civilians, chalabi, bremer, etc – is that I can only imagine the most rabid partisan, the most extreme wingnut of the right or left, refusing to rethink – if only for a brief period – all they felt certain about before.

(less)

Like this review? yes (12 people liked it)

63 comments

03/06/09

Lucy rated it:

Read in March, 2009

Dexter Filkins, the author of The Forever War, is a New York Times foreign correspondent who covered the middle east from Afghanistan's Taliban rule in 1998 to Iraq through 2006.

I should probably confess right away that I'm not a fan of journalism. I resent the whole idea of getting information from people who are in the business of selling it. I don't know what the alternative would be, but still....it seems like a conflict of interest.

On top of that, there is the issue ...more Dexter Filkins, the author of The Forever War, is a New York Times foreign correspondent who covered the middle east from Afghanistan's Taliban rule in 1998 to Iraq through 2006.

I should probably confess right away that I'm not a fan of journalism. I resent the whole idea of getting information from people who are in the business of selling it. I don't know what the alternative would be, but still....it seems like a conflict of interest.

On top of that, there is the issue of bias. We all have it. I'm not sure it's possible to communicate without it. So, when it's somebody's job to write/talk/share about an issue, I don't believe anyone is completely able to leave it out. It's a lot more obvious to detect when your own bias stands in opposition. I can't read Arianna Huffington or Ann Coulter without some serious eye rolling, but Peggy Noonan? I think she's brilliant. I think she's fair. I can't see her bias as easily, but I'm sure that's because I agree with her, most of the time.

I must agree with Dexter Filkins too because I had a very hard time detecting any bias in his book. The Forever War doesn't give a chronological time line of the war on terror, or even a history or reason for the conflict up to this point. Instead, the book's focus is much more narrow. Using small snippets from his observations, conversations and the various situations he found himself in as an American journalist living in a fundamental Islam dominated middle east, the war takes its own shape without much molding from the author. Through Filkin's reporting, the war is viewed from many various perspectives. The Taliban's, Afghani women, American soldiers, American politicians, American ambassadors, Iraqi Sunni's, Iraqi Shiites, Kurds, hardliners, moderates, families, women, children. Iraqis as gracious hosts. Iraqis blind to American goodwill. Iraqis determined to keep their country in chaos. Iraqis as the neighbor or friend you wish you had.

As he sometimes traveled under the protection of the US Forces, he was able to observe their behavior too. Like their Iraqi counterparts, soldiers and military leaders ranged from the truly valiant, noble even, to complete jerks. But, because he told individual stories and reported moments in time as they happened, very few of his reports are tinged with the burden of hindsight or the sensationalism that I so loathe. It's incredibly present. A snapshot with words.

Filkins manages to keep himself out of his reporting most of the time as well. Even when he's part of the story, such as when he runs in shorts that he knows bothers Muslim modesty, it's not about his running or even his legs, it's about the Iraqi guard's humor, generosity and discomfort. When he's not part of the story, his presence is hardly noticeable. For example, he doesn't editorialize an interview with an Iraqi jihadist. The emotion, that spills out of the pages is one of the jihadist's single-mindedness and hatred for the infidels, not of Filkin's response. No apologies. No excuses. When he's interviewing a 19 year-old American soldier from Pearland, Texas, the pages fill with the soldier's optimism, hope and unquestioning obedience to his superiors, not Filkin's east-coast, Harvard educated sensibilities.

Sometimes, the book becomes more than raw reporting. Sometimes, Filkins allows his own confusion and conflicting emotions to tell this story too. Like the time he gets lifted into an angry anti-American mob, and his certain soon-to-be death, but before any harm befalls him, he is pulled back into the safety of his car by his Iraqi driver. Gratitude for one Iraqi and fear of another. Conflict.

If there should ever be required reading on the present day conflict in Iraq, The Forever War should hold a place at the top of that list. While it is a book that no doubt Filkins hopes will sell, I don't think he's trying to sell a view of this war to the left or to the right. Instead, like a meaningful piece of art, he captures what war is - past, present and future: hope, corruption, fear, courage, sacrifice, weariness, destruction, honor, death and change - all together. Forever.(less)

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

4 comments

10/28/08

Buck rated it:

Technically, The Forever War is a work of reportage - magnificent reportage, in fact - but that's not all it is. For one thing, Filkin's tone is at times more personal, more anguished, than conventional journalism usually allows. For another, the cumulative impact of the pieces is beyond the literary reach of your average hack reporter. I'd suggest, then, that it belongs to that growing subgenre known as survivor literature: traveller's tales, in effect, brought back from a netherworld of hum...more Technically, The Forever War is a work of reportage - magnificent reportage, in fact - but that's not all it is. For one thing, Filkin's tone is at times more personal, more anguished, than conventional journalism usually allows. For another, the cumulative impact of the pieces is beyond the literary reach of your average hack reporter. I'd suggest, then, that it belongs to that growing subgenre known as survivor literature: traveller's tales, in effect, brought back from a netherworld of human suffering.

Filkins spent years in post-invasion Iraq, living entirely outside the Green Zone, and he got to know the country as well as any non-Arabic speaking Westerner could be expected to - and much better, I'd guess, than just about any American official you could name. What's great about Filkins, though, is his intellectual modesty. He's not afraid to show us his sheer, lip-twiddling confusion in the face of some intractable bit of Iraqi reality, and to use his own incomprehension as an index of the wider myopia besetting the occupation.

One instance among dozens: Filkins is interviewing an insurgent whose brother has allegedly been murdered by a rival faction. Out of nowhere, the leader of that other group comes along and sits down at the next table. Filkins senses an 'animal tension' in the air and readies himself for a gunfight. The two adversaries spring to their feet and then, with all the fake bonhomie of Long Island party girls, they set to hugging each other and promising to get together some time. Here, as with so many of Filkin's vignettes, there's a sort of invisible, authorial 'wtf' hovering between the lines.

Or take his portrait of Ahmad Chalabi, the slippery political operator and former darling of the neo-cons. Filkins honestly doesn't know what to make of him. Is he an American stooge? An Iranian puppet? A political genius or a cynical rogue? For Filkins, resting as he does in a negative capability rare among journalists, that very ambiguity is the point:

It wasn't just that he was brilliant, or nimble, or ruthless, or fun. When I looked into Chalabi's eyes and saw the doors and mirrors opening and closing, I knew that I was seeing not just the essence of the man but of the country to which he'd returned. L'etat, c'est lui. Chalabi was Iraq.

Whatever your political convictions, whatever your views on Iraq, they're going to be, at the very least, recalibrated by The Forever War. On the one hand, nobody but the most indefatigable cheerleader of the war could fail to be revolted by the sadistic lunacy unleashed in the aftermath of the invasion. Of course, we've always known about the Shi'ite death squads with their electric drills and the Islamist nutjobs with their snuff films. But Filkins makes this vast collective nightmare all the more real and terrible by putting faces to the names and sketching in all the ghastly little human details. It's hard-going at times, but it's absolutely essential, I think.

On the other hand, anyone espousing the more simple-minded pacifism of the purblind left is bound to be equally troubled by Filkin's reporting. And maybe, just maybe, the supposedly humane middle ground where many of us huddle nervously is not a viable option, either. I don't know, I really don't. But neither does Filkins. That's one reason I trust him, and one of the many reasons I admire him.(less)

Like this review? yes (7 people liked it)

2 comments

09/25/08

Jim Coughenour rated it:

bookshelves: politicalinsight

Read in September, 2008

I have a shelf of books on Iraq & Afghanistan – mostly unfinished because the absurdity and the carnage, the futility and mendacity, are too dispiriting and I have to put them down. Filkins has written something different, a first person account of what it's like to be in the midst of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens – his book is a series of vignettes, carefully observed and plainly written. It pretty much avoids the political background and concentrates on the foreground, people he kn...more

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

add a comment

04/04/09

Naeem rated it:

Read in March, 2009

recommended to Naeem by: John Hickey (Ithaca College librarian)

I withheld a star despite my belief that this book MUST be read; read today.

Filkins writes about his experiences as a war reporter in Afghanistan and Iraq (mostly the book is about Iraq). It is composed of short, medium, and long vignettes. He makes no effort to connect them.

It works as fiction works, implicitly. Mainly Filkins describes his situations and leaves his readers the job of interpreting. Some of these are as mundane as jogging along the Tigris river. Oth...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

3 comments

09/24/08

Jesse rated it:

Read in September, 2008

The best book yet on Iraq, from a Taliban execution in 1998 to the WTC, where Filkins sees an intestine lying on the ground, to Iraq, where an attempt to get the story gets a Marine killed. Visceral, smart, funny, and pained (the acknowledgements mention, in passing, that these experiences destroyed his marriage), with sweeping, memorable images of devastation and meaningless absurdity mixed with short-short stories--a fitting equal to Herr's Dispatches, and also sneakily alluding, I would guess...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

12/22/08

daysgoby rated it:

I can't remember who recommended this book, so I don't know who to thank...but I walked away from this book with my mouth open, shaking my head in awe.

This man can *write*. He brought scenes from war-ravaged countries into my living room, and found a way to accentuate both the devastation and the quiet small moments, creating a book that horrifies and educates and gives you hope, all at once.

Really, read this.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

01/29/09

Visha rated it:

Read in October, 2008

recommends it for: Tim, Dad, everyone!

Outstanding war-writing from a respected and talented correspondent/writer. After so many disappointing books written by hacks, Filkins manages to elevate the status of "war-memoir-as-written-by-a-reporter." Filkins does not offer solutions, but he objectively presents a picture of what is going on in the Middle East, what our strengths and weaknesses are, and the devastating fact that there will be no easy resolution to this forever war. Highly recommended; one for your permanent b...more Outstanding war-writing from a respected and talented correspondent/writer. After so many disappointing books written by hacks, Filkins manages to elevate the status of "war-memoir-as-written-by-a-reporter." Filkins does not offer solutions, but he objectively presents a picture of what is going on in the Middle East, what our strengths and weaknesses are, and the devastating fact that there will be no easy resolution to this forever war. Highly recommended; one for your permanent bookshelf.

A long-time foreign correspondent, Filkins gives a very complete picture of the complex situation in the Middle East. Starting in Afganistan in the late '90s, the book opens with a graphic execution scene in a soccer stadium. Filkins shows the Taliban and the war lords, the Washington power-players, the grimy enlisted men, the informers, the orphans, the wild dogs, the attempts by the military to build beautiful parks and the ineptitude in those types of ideas. I was impressed by Filkins' ability to give credit to others, to admit his own defeats and guilt, to feel frustrated at his country's inability to provide a real picture of what is going on in Iraq and particularly in Baghdad.

I respected this book in part because Filkins does not take credit for any bravery, luck, or victories. He is not an enlisted man, only a reporter, and unlike so many others, he doesn't insinuate that any of their qualities are transferred to him by osmosis. In fact, Filkins gives the impression of having been massively changed for his assignment in the Middle East; perhaps not entirely broken, he is bruised and battered by his experiences, and admits in his acknowledgements that his own home life has suffered because he can't let go. I also respected the excellence of his writing - the language of the book is beautiful yet straightforward, and Filkins has masterful timing - each chapter resulted in a strong emotional reaction from me. I don't often cry when reading, yet I sobbed freely when reading this book, but never more than at the end. (less)

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

01/15/09

Jeremy rated it:

I wish there were a six-star rating. I've been reading a lot of Iraq and Afghanistan war books lately and this one is heads and shoulders above all of them. Not because it uncovers any sort of unique secret truths, but because of its artful and engaging prose. Filkins, a NY Times reporter, largely tells his own story of being on the ground in Iraq. By doing so, he gives the reader an entree into the experience that would be impossible if he had used a detached, reporter-like voice. It's well wor...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

01/17/09

Clare added it

The Forever War - I had been thinking, it seemed like a long time: I was in high school when we invaded Iraq, I was in college and we were still there, I graduated college and not much has changed, only news coverage of the war has decreased as we've moved on to other wars. But since Dexter Filkins starts his book in Afghanistan, and it looks like we'll be there until the end of time, too, you get the sense that he could keep adding chapters to this book until it grew to a multi-volume set. As...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

01/27/09

Garrett rated it:

Read in February, 2009

Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter, spent somewhere in the neighborhood of a decade reporting on developments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He watched the current US wars unfold. In The Forever War, Filkins reports his stories in bits and pieces. He likes to be where the action is and find out what people are thinking and doing. He talks to soldiers, Iraqi citizens, warlords, political leaders, and insurgents. Amidst all the chaos he describes, Filkins goes to great pains (often literally) to ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

11/12/08

Map rated it:

Read in November, 2008

What an amazing book, one of the best I've read this year. Dexter Filkins makes the Iraq War—the experience of war itself— visceral and immediate. You smell the cordite, the burning flesh, the stink of fear; feel the anxiety, the exhilaration, the sorrow, the anger, and the numbness. He doesn't try to make sense of the insanity; he records it as he saw it, offering background and context that no newspaper story or radio report, by its very nature, can relay.

A reader emailed Fi...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

09/13/08

Laura marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read, to-read-adult-nonfiction

Did anyone else read the review of this in the NYT Book Review this weekend? Here's a glimpse of the review: "It is not facetious to speak of work like that of Dexter Filkins as defining the 'culture' of a war. The contrast of his eloquence and humanity with the shameless snake-oil salesmanship employed by the American government to get the thing started serves us well."

Or this:

"The work Filkins accomplishes in 'The Forever War' is one of the most effecti...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

11/19/08

Kathleen Gilroy rated it:

Gripping, horrifying grounds-eye view of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Filkins was the New York Times correspondent for both wars and his book is a series of beautifully written set pieces about what life was like on streets for civilians, soldiers, and journalists. He seems to risk his life to get the story and thank goodness he lived to tell this tale.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

02/09/09

Trena rated it:

Read in February, 2009

recommended to Trena by: DC Public Library

I picked this book up from a library display because I really know nothing about the Iraq/Afghanistan war. The author is a reporter from the New York Times who spent some time in Afghanistan and several years in Iraq.

Although there is somewhat of an agenda to the book, it is not a treatise or in any way intended to be a policy statement or overall analysis of the war. It seems more to be a collection of anecdotes that never fit into any NYT stories. This works for me; like "...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

04/09/09

Michael VanZandt rated it:

Read in April, 2009

This book is chilling. It is not quite like anything else I have ever read before. Although, at times, I was reminded of All Quiet on the Western Front, with its sheer honesty and the inevitable spiral to chaos. Dexter Filkins was a foreign correspondent with the New York Times, and was on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, when the bad got really, really bad. The vast majority of this book describes his experience in Iraq for the four years he lived the dying city of Baghdad.

Th...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

06/05/09

Pat rated it:

Read in February, 2009

This is a great book.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., said that "it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived." By that standard, Dexter Filkins has earned a very high grade.

In the epilogue, Filkins says he was "flattened" by his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a good description. The tone of the book is almost laconic in spite of the vividly brutal events it often rec...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

05/10/09

Stephanie rated it:

bookshelves: 9-11, politics, scary

Read in May, 2009

chilling, gripping, powerful, scary, guilt-inducing, tragic, and I swear if I had read this and Bush was still in office I would just cut my wrists.

It isn't comfortable reading, nor is it reassuring, and I swear the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is just getting worse by the month, and NOTHING in this book made me happy about the prospects for peace.

It is a series of vignettes, and at first I found it unsettling to begin a new chapter and be put into something tha...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

01/22/09

Wes rated it:

bookshelves: afghanistan, iraq, military, narrative, non-fiction, personal-classic

Read in January, 2009

I was riveted.

This is a loosely chronological, firsthand account of one reporter's experiences in both pre-9/11 Afghanistan and post-invasion Iraq. His three and a half years in Iraq make up the largest part of the book. The only other dispatch-type book I've read on the conflict was Michael Yon's Moment of Truth in Iraq. (I've read and appreciated Yon's online reporting for years now, but his writing style edited down for brevity just didn't work very well in book format.)

...more I was riveted.

This is a loosely chronological, firsthand account of one reporter's experiences in both pre-9/11 Afghanistan and post-invasion Iraq. His three and a half years in Iraq make up the largest part of the book. The only other dispatch-type book I've read on the conflict was Michael Yon's Moment of Truth in Iraq. (I've read and appreciated Yon's online reporting for years now, but his writing style edited down for brevity just didn't work very well in book format.)

I'd never consciously read this author's reporting before, so I can't compare his style there with this effort. (Although today after finishing I browsed the Times website and found a recent one of his from Afghanistan that I read just last week. Small world!) It took a trio of reviews elsewhere for me to take a second look and buy the thing after initially dismissing it. I didn't think a series of “portraits” would hold my interest, but I was wrong: this is excellent writing, and it's perfectly suited for a book.

The author relates one disturbing or amusing or heartbreaking episode after another with clarity and brevity. I found it a page-turner despite the frequent jumps from place to place, with far too many names and groups to remember. But I never got irritated or bored at this; something about the writing let me take it all in stride and keep reading.

So many of the Iraq stories are twisted, complicated, and complex; I thought the author managed to simplify them in a way with his stark portrayals. I never, ever got the feeling that he was pushing any sort of agenda, and I appreciated that a lot. He's often brutally honest and fair, describing the madness with a keen eye that scrutinized all sides. In a way I was almost surprised by how a-political the book turned out to be.

It was sometimes humorous how frequently the author put himself into harm's way in his reporting. He has quite a few close calls, many of them he brought upon himself; which some, including me, would call reckless or careless (…or even a bit crazy, lol).

I think this book is a worthy counterpart to Tom Ricks' masterful Fiasco (I look forward to its sequel, out next month). Both books focus on the first few years after the Iraq invasion, and where Ricks systematically details the rampant, almost systemic negligence by our military and civilian leadership, this book sheds light on everyday life in Iraq during that span of chaos, and also (briefly) the plights of the soldiers and Marines on the ground.

Highly recommended.(less)

Like this review? yes

add a comment

01/12/09

Julie rated it:

Read in January, 2009

This book was incredibly intense and terrifying. It's not one that I'll be forgetting anytime soon. Dexter Filkins has been in the action, the heat of the battle in Afghanistan and Iraq - and has somehow come out alive. Of that, I'm glad because he has given me a true sense of what life is like over there, what exactly is going on, and has also made me question how effective the U.S. has been in intervening in the war on terrorism. I know we've had good intentions, but there are so many barriers...more This book was incredibly intense and terrifying. It's not one that I'll be forgetting anytime soon. Dexter Filkins has been in the action, the heat of the battle in Afghanistan and Iraq - and has somehow come out alive. Of that, I'm glad because he has given me a true sense of what life is like over there, what exactly is going on, and has also made me question how effective the U.S. has been in intervening in the war on terrorism. I know we've had good intentions, but there are so many barriers (cultural, religious, tribal, language, etc.) and I think both sides have been misunderstood.

I'm just happy that my brother has returned safely from Iraq, after having some idea now what he has gone through physically and mentally and the duties he performed every day. I think this book is a must-read for every American. (Warning: some rough language and graphic descriptions)

Here are some quotes that were enlightening to me and seemed to sum up the situation there:

"Iraq might have been a traumatized country, it might have been broken, it might have been atomized - it might have been a mental hospital. But whenever the prospect of normalcy presented itself, a long line of Iraqis always stood up and reached for it." (p.81-2)

"There were always two conversations in Iraq, the one the Iraqis were having with the Americans and the one they were having among themselves. The one the Iraqis were having with us - that was positive and predictable and boring, and it made the Americans happy because it made them think they were winning. And the Iraqis kept it up because it kept the money flowing, or because it bought them a little peace. The conversation they were having with each other was the one that really mattered, of course. That conversation was the chatter of a whole other world, a parallel reality, which sometimes unfolded right next to the Americans, even right in front of them. And we almost never saw it." (p. 115)

"The most basic barrier was language itself. Very few of the Americans in Iraq, whether soldiers or diplomats or newspaper reporters, could speak more than a few words of Arabic. A remarkable number of them didn't even have translators. That meant that for many Iraqis, the typical 19-yr old army corporal from South Dakota was not a youthful innocent carrying America's goodwill; he was a terrifying combination of firepower and ignorance." (p. 116)

"The insurgency: it was everywhere and nowhere. The Americans would bring in heavy artillery and the troops, they would roll into Iraqi towns ready for a fight, and they would discover,invariably, that the enemy had disappeared. Often, the people they were looking for were standing a few feet away...The insurgents were Iraqis; the Iraqis were insurgents. Sometimes they fought; the rest of the time they were standing around like everyone else. It drove the Americans crazy.
...If you were ever lucky enough to get one of the Iraqis to answer, he'd tell you almost without exception that the guys who fired the missile or planted the bomb or fired from the rooftop had come from somewhere else: outside the village, outside the country. He rarely said, It was that guy, right over there, third house on the left.
It wasn't just that the Iraqis lied. Of course they lied. It was that they had more to consider than the Americans were ever willing to give them credit for. The Iraqis had to live in their neighborhoods, after the American soldiers had gone home. The Iraqis had to survive. They had their children to consider. For the Iraqis, life among the Americans often meant living a double life, the one they thought the Americans wanted to see, and the real one they lived when the Americans went home." (p. 122-3)

"The Iraqis lied to the Americans, no question. But the worst lies were the ones the Americans told themselves. They believed them because it was convenient - and because not to believe them was too horrifying to think about." (p. 130)

"The Black Hawk skirted the date palms and the mud-colored roofs...The anarchy of the streets carried no sound so high...Under the spell of the whirring motor I felt suddenly hopeful for the country below...It was useful to fly in helicopters for this reason, I thought to myself, useful to think this way, to take a wider view of the world. Too much detail, too much death, clouded the mind...In the Black Hawk I wondered whether I needed to stand back, to take a longer view. Perhaps in the hideous present some larger good was being born, struggling painfully and awfully, but coming into the world just the same. And perhaps this new world might one day justify the death and suffering unfolding below, just as the Americans in the Green Zone and the angry bloggers told me back home. Sometimes even the Iraqis told me that." (p.145)

" "I am so tired," Yusra (a female Iraqi interpretor) said. "In Saddam's time, I knew that if I kept my mouth shut, if I did not say anything against him, I would be safe. But now it is different. There are so many reasons why someone would want to kill me now: because I am Shiite, because I have a Sunni son, because I work for the Americans, because I drive, because I am a woman with a job, because"- she picked up her abaya-"I don't wear my stupid hejab."...she drew a large circle..."This was Saddam,"she said."He is here. Big. During Saddam's time, all you had to do was stay away from this giant thing. That was not pleasant, but not so hard."...She drew a dozen circles, some of them touching, overlapping..."The dot in the middle, that is me-that is every Iraqi...From everywhere you can be killed, from here, from here, from here, from here"...stabbing her pen into the notepad. "We Iraqis are all sentenced to death and we do not know by whom." " (p.326)

I apologize for the length! I just found it very helpful to read this book, to understand something of what is going on in the Middle-Eastern conflict that seems to dominate much of our politics and news.(less)

Like this review? yes

add a comment

title link
avg rating
small image
med image
large image

The Forever War

book data

new topic
discuss this book

friend reviews

lists with this book

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,338)

blog this book

combine
other editions (8)

popular shelves

groups with this book

Audio books on iTunes

The Forever War

book data

new topic discuss this book

friend reviews

lists with this book

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,338)

blog this book

combine other editions (8)

popular shelves

groups with this book

Audio books on iTunes

new topic
discuss this book

combine
other editions (8)